Examine the budgeting process as it relates to legislative ......RADHIKA GORE WORKING PAPER DIVISION OF POLICY AND PLANNING SEPTEMBER 2004 . Influencing Budgets for Children’s Rights

INFLUENCING BUDGETS

FOR CHILDREN’S RIGHTS RADHIKA GORE

WORKING PAPER

DIVISION OF POLICY AND PLANNING

SEPTEMBER 2004

Influencing Budgets for Children’s Rights

Summary

States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (the Convention) are required

to undertake legislative reforms to incorporate the Convention in their domestic legal

systems. To follow through with legislative reform efforts and the introduction of new

laws and policies, resources need to be allocated towards meeting objectives and

fulfilling children‟s rights. That is, budget allocations have to reflect the government‟s

policy decisions and legislative actions.

The objective of this document is to highlight the ways in which various actors, including

branches of government, civil society organizations, communities, international agencies,

etc., have attempted to analyze, devise, and advocate for socially equitable and gender-

and child-sensitive budgets. The document provides examples of “budget initiatives,” that

is, efforts aimed at influencing budgets for children‟s rights through actions such as

improving budget transparency; creating public awareness; building capacity for analysis

and advocacy; analysing budget content and effectiveness; and holding governments

accountable for policy decisions. It describes some of the tools and methodologies

employed by budget initiatives and their impact where possible. It concludes with

highlighting some of the common features of the initiatives, and suggestions for

improving the monitoring of resource allocations and expenditures for children‟s rights.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction to the policy and budget process ............................................ 1

1.1 Background and purpose of this document ................................................. 1 1.2 Availability of resources for implementing children‟s rights ..................... 3 1.3 Ensuring state accountability ...................................................................... 5 1.4 Estimating resources given that rights are indivisible and inter-related ..... 6 1.5 Challenges in monitoring budgetary allocations......................................... 6

1.6 The public policy process and its links to the budget ................................. 9

2 Ways and means to influence the budget .................................................. 10

2.1 Costing laws and policies: Objectives and methodologies ....................... 11 2.2 Entry points along the budget cycle .......................................................... 12

3 Case studies ............................................................................................... 14

3.1 South Africa: Costing the implementation of the Child Justice Bill ........ 14

3.2 South Africa: Child poverty and the budget ............................................. 15 3.3 Vietnam: Child-focused budget study on the right to education .............. 16

3.4 Brazil: Calculating the “Children‟s Budget” ............................................ 16 3.5 Brazil: Community participation .............................................................. 17 3.6 Ecuador: Budget analysis and national-level advocacy ............................ 18

3.7 India: Raising public awareness at the sub-national level ........................ 18

3.8 Tanzania: Gender budget network ............................................................ 19

4 Conclusions ............................................................................................... 20

4.1 Common features of budget initiatives ..................................................... 20

4.2 Measuring impact...................................................................................... 21 4.3 Suggestions for further action ................................................................... 23

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1 Introduction to the policy and budget process

1.1 Background and purpose of this document

How the Convention on the Rights of the Child make a call for public resource allocation

Implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child (the Convention) places a clear

resource obligation on State Parties as well as on civil society, non-government

organizations, media, international organizations, etc. The Convention is explicit about

the responsibility of State Parties to ensure that public resources are made available,

allocated, and spent in order to progressively realize children‟s rights. Under Article 4 of

the Convention, State Parties are obligated to “undertake all appropriate legislative,

administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights” recognized in

the Convention. Particularly with regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States

Parties undertake to utilize “the maximum extent of their available resources,” and, where

needed, to do so “within the framework of international co-operation.”

The Convention indicates particular duties and responsibilities of State Parties in this

regard. For instance, in Article 18, State Parties also undertake to assist parents and legal

guardians in fulfilling their child-rearing responsibilities, to develop institutions, facilities

and services for the care of children, and to ensure that children of working parents have

the right to benefit from child-care services and facilities for which they are eligible.

Under Article 26, the Convention recognizes the right of every child to benefit from

social security, and enjoins State Parties to undertake measures to achieve the realization

of this right in accordance with their national law and in the context of the circumstances

of the child.

Further, in Article 24 on health and nutrition and Article 28 on education, the Convention

refers to the need to take account of developing countries and says that State Parties shall

“undertake to promote and encourage the need for international co-operation” in this

respect.

The above Articles, together with others in the Convention, lay out the obligations,

duties, and responsibilities of State Parties, of both the state and of those persons

responsible for the care of children. The implementation of the Convention calls for a

framework of resources, institutions, facilities, services, and standards required for the

realization of children‟s rights. Moreover, the Convention indicates not only what should

be made available, but how the process should proceed, including that it should be in

keeping with the best interests of the child (Article 3) and with the participation of the

child (Article 5).

What is a budget? How do budgets fit in with the implementation of the Convention?

The budget is defined as “a document that, once approved by the legislature, authorises

the government to raise revenues, incur debts and effect expenditures in order to achieve

certain goals … the budget determines the origin and application of public financial

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resources.”1 In other words, a budget represents, in monetary terms, the policy objectives

of the government.

A new budget is prepared each year and is instituted as an annual law. That is, each year,

the budget is drawn up by the executive branch of the government and has to be approved

by the legislature before it comes into effect. The budget is prepared on the basis of the

government‟s economic and social goals, and the overarching ideological platform that

the government holds. The budget is influenced by political imperatives, from both

within the government and outside it, such as private sector interests and pressure from

international financial institutions. The budget-making process – its theory, reality, and

weaknesses - is described more fully below.

The importance of confronting the entire public policy process

All resource allocations that are listed in the budget represent the government‟s

objectives, policy decisions, and approved laws. In other words, the budget reflects the

agenda of the government. This is a critical point for addressing budgets with a human

rights-based approach.

If the budget is to be revised from the perspective of children‟s rights, then the policy

framework that it reflects has to be evaluated in its entirety for its impact on the

realization of rights. For any legislative change undertaken to implement the Convention,

the associated resource implications need to be evaluated in terms of how the entire

budget is structured. This is because any increases in one part of the budget (for example,

higher spending on child protection measures or on social security) are usually only

possible if there is one or both of the following: a decrease in another part of the budget

(for example, decrease in military spending), or an increase in revenues for the

government (for example, increase in income taxes). The various parts of the budget may

not all be explicitly related to children, but they affect the potential to create a socially

equitable distribution of resources.

Budgets are put together through a process that intersects with the policy-making process

and legislative reform process. Each process influences the other; therefore, it is not

enough to look at the budget in isolation. Neither is it enough to undertake legal reform

without ensuring that public funds are made available and are spent to follow up the

implementation of new legislation for children. Laws, policies, and budgets need to be

considered together. In addition, they need to be assessed not only in terms of what they

propose to do, but also the outcomes they achieve.

The focus and objectives of this document

As the Convention makes clear, the adequacy of resources for realizing children‟s rights

is a concern not limited to the state, but extends throughout society and the international

community.2 This includes the private sector, civil society organizations, development

agencies and international financial institutions. However, the primary responsibility for

1Elson, D. and Norton, A. What’s behind the budget? Politics, rights and accountability in the budget process. Overseas Development

Institute (ODI). June 2002. 2 Parker, D. “Resources and child rights” in Himes, J.R. (Ed.) Implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Resource Mobilization in Low-Income Countries (1995). UNICEF. Page 36.

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providing public resources lies with the state. It is the state that can undertake legislative,

institutional and administrative actions, provide social services, make policy decisions,

and formulate budgets to ensure that children‟s rights are realized.

Therefore, the focus of this document is on the resources available to State Parties and the

mechanisms to allocate and use the resources. These mechanisms involve what is referred

to here as the “public policy process,” which denotes the making of laws, policies, and

budgets and translating them into action and outcomes. Understanding the links between

laws, policies, budgets and their outcomes is important because the budget should not be

dominated by political interest groups, or by corruption or inefficiency in the public

sector; rather, it should be driven by the objectives of legislative reform and policy

decisions. In addition, political will, governance, and public sector efficiency should

ensure that the funds are spent so that they actually reach and benefit children and

families. States play a key role in this regard.

State Parties need to be held accountable for harnessing resources and the development

process for children. However, estimating, reporting, and monitoring resource allocations

and expenditures with respect to children‟s rights is a challenge for most State Parties. As

described more fully below, few State Parties are doing so systematically.

Civil society actors also face challenges in this respect. For instance, the link between

policies, laws and budgets is often not transparent. Tracking government action and the

realization of children‟s rights with respect to laws, policies, and budgets requires well-

documented and accessible information. Such information is often difficult to record and

is not easily available. Policies and laws are often made without a careful reckoning of

the resources that they require, either due to a lack of information and/or lack of capacity

within the government (within both the executive and legislature). This poses a challenge

for implementing the Convention as well as for monitoring its implementation.

Given this challenge, State Parties have made concerted efforts to work with experts,

non-government organizations (NGOs), communities, and international organizations on

the issue of monitoring the realization of children‟s rights. In several cases, NGOs have

taken the lead in estimating and monitoring the public sources required to implement

children‟s rights, and have launched advocacy strategies to hold the government

accountable.

The objective of this document is to highlight these varied efforts, and illustrate the ways

in which various actors (including branches of government, civil society organizations,

communities, international agencies, etc.) have attempted to analyze, devise, and

advocate for socially equitable and gender- and child-sensitive budgets.

1.2 Availability of resources for implementing children’s rights

As mentioned above, under Article 4 of the Convention, State Parties are obligated to

take appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of

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children‟s rights. The reference to State Parties undertaking such measures to the

“maximum extent of their available resources” is critical to its implementation. There are

various types of resources in a society that can be harnessed towards this effort, and there

is considerable overlap and interaction across these categories:3

• Human resources: Physical and mental health, knowledge, creativity, self-confidence,

time availability, and skills (interpreted broadly to include important abilities such as

child-rearing, teaching, leadership, managerial and political skills)

• Economic resources: income (in kind or cash, or individuals or enterprises), assets,

natural resources (especially land and water), credit, government revenues and

expenditures

• Organizational resources: family and household structure, extended family or clan

relationships, community structure and organizations, cooperatives, trade unions,

religious organizations, the media, governmental organizations, other public- and

private-sector institutions and managerial arrangements, technologies

Reasons that are sometimes cited for unavailability of resources4

Governments may delay the implementation of certain laws, not follow up with the

needed actions or policies, or give them lower priority, on the grounds that the economic

or institutional resources at their disposal are limited. The argument of limited resources

is related to factors that are internal to the country, or to external international pressure,

or both.

For example, low-income countries typically have limited capability to raise funds

through taxes. They have limited capacity to meet standards of quality and access to

services that essential for child survival, development, protection, and participation.

Developing countries whose policy frameworks are subject to conditions stipulated by

international financial institutions, such as the World Bank or the International Monetary

Fund (IMF), may find that the conditions leave them little flexibility in deciding how

national public funds should be spent.

Forces such as privatisation, decentralization, deregulation, trade liberalization, etc. have

the effect of limiting the role of the government. That is, the government withdraws from

regulating the economy or providing basic social services. Consequently, vulnerable and

marginalized groups are left unprotected and could be excluded from enjoying their

rights. For example, privatisation of health services poses a burden on the poor who

cannot afford the costs of private healthcare. If there is no mechanism to address the

inequalities in income, power, voice, or opportunity in a society, then the protection and

fulfilment of children‟s rights is jeopardized.

Moreover, the larger macroeconomic framework of the country might be skewed so that

there is no room to consider concerns of social equity and children‟s rights, which get left

out of budgetary decisions. As Elson and Cagatay note5, even when attempts are made to

integrate macroeconomic management with socially-oriented goals, there is still a

3 Himes, J.R. (Ed.) Implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Resource Mobilization in Low-Income Countries (1995).

UNICEF. Page 5. 4 Children’s Rights. Turning Principles into Practice (2000). UNICEF and Save the Children. Page 84. 5 Elson, D. and Cagatay, N. (2000). The social content of macroeconomic policies. World Development, Vol. 28, No. 7, pp. 1347.

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tendency to design what are termed „sound‟ macroeconomic policies with a focus on

market-based criteria.6 Policies that aim at equity and non-discrimination are added only

afterwards, as an afterthought.7 In such a scenario, children‟s rights receive low priority

in national spending plans.

The central issue is to ensure that state actions and policy decisions do not constrain the

resources available for fulfilling children‟s rights and for implementing related

legislation. One way to achieve this is through ensuring that policy and budget processes

are transparent, participatory, and accountable.

1.3 Ensuring state accountability

Ensuring accountability with a focus on results

Two ways that governments can set targets or indicators to monitor progress are (1) by

observing the change in outputs, such as higher levels of spending on the juvenile justice

system, or expansion in public housing, and (2) by observing the achievement of

outcomes, such as improved quality of education. Of these two ways, outcomes

emphasize a focus on results. Outcome indicators shift the focus from observing what the

state has instituted, produced, built or delivered, towards observing the effect of these

investments and activities on the well-being of children.

As Himes writes in relation to setting explicit goals and target dates for monitoring

children‟s rights, the need is to ensure effective implementation and monitoring “not so

much of the process as the actual outcomes for children resulting, at least to some extent,

from measures taken by States Parties.”8

Relevance to the rights-based approach

The distinction between outputs and outcomes is critical from a human rights perspective,

since it enhances ways to monitor the accountability of the state. As Elson and Norton

state, it “resonates well with a human rights approach in that the formulation of economic

and social rights in the relevant treaties is generally formulated in „outcome‟ terms (the

right to health is about health outcomes, not specific rights to the outputs of public health

services).”9 A human rights-based approach to public policy would affect the budget as

follows:

• Increase the level of funds allocated for social services, and protect these funds

against retrenchment (i.e. protect them from being withdrawn)

6 “Market-based criteria” implies a reliance on markets, without government intervention, to deliver the optimum distribution of goods

and services in a society. It does not place as a primary objective the social equity or justice of the distributions of resources; rather it

assumes that markets will ultimately deliver the most efficient outcomes. Note that “efficient” outcomes are not necessarily “equitable.” 7 Actualizing an alternative approach based on human rights principles presents a number of challenges. For instance, governments

may lack the power or capacity to negotiate effectively for such changes. Legislators may lack the technical expertise to analyze and

challenge budgets. Civil society has limited channels for participation. 8 Himes, J.R. “Introduction.” Implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Resource Mobilization in Low-Income

Countries (1995). Himes, J. (Ed.). UNICEF. Page 18. 9 Elson and Norton. Page vii.

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• Increase resources, including human, economic, administrative, etc., allocated for

strengthening state institutions, for both delivery of services and enabling legal

redress

• Increase resources towards building capacity of the disadvantaged to claim rights,

for example, improving access to information and organizational skills, and enabling

society to hold the state accountable for performance

• Design fund allocations in other sectors, such as industry, trade, etc, so that they

complement the progress towards the realization of children‟s rights

However, monitoring budgets according to rights-based criteria is a task that is

complicated by the nature of budgetary data (which is often incomplete, not detailed

enough, or unavailable) and requires careful analysis based on the inter-relatedness of

rights.

1.4 Estimating resources given that rights are indivisible and inter-related

Fulfilling children‟s rights does not imply investing only in sectors that are directly or

explicitly of concern to children‟s well-being. This is aligned with the principle of

indivisibility and inter-relatedness of rights. For example, investment in healthcare is

critical for children; however, simply investing in the health sector is not enough to

guarantee an acceptable standard of health. Without adequate attention to child protection

and care, the standards of health will be compromised. In other words, fulfilling

children‟s rights involves taking a comprehensive perspective of the factors that

contribute to their well-being.

The process of implementing laws, policies, and budgets is also a matter of co-ordinated

action at many levels. Programmes and activities need to be implemented across sectors

and involve both government agencies and non-government actors. Estimating the

resources required for realizing children‟s rights involves comprehensively evaluating the

actions and resources required.

In order to take a comprehensive perspective, we need to define a social and economic

policy framework that addresses human rights in their entirety - one which takes into

account economic, social and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights - and to

plan actions and make investments accordingly. Physical infrastructure such as roads,

electricity and water supply; trade and environmental policies; privatization and

decentralization policies; among other factors, are as significant to achieving a world fit

for children as making investments in child protection, education, health, etc. and

promoting gender equality. The various sectors are inter-related, and need to be assessed

jointly for the kinds of effects that they produce collectively.

1.5 Challenges in monitoring budgetary allocations

There are several ways by which to monitor government budgets with respect to the

realization of children‟s rights. Some of these are through analyzing documents, plans

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and reports such as: State Party reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child,

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, National Plans of Action, and national development

plans. The challenges associated with these documents and plans, as well as with the

nature of budgetary data in general, are presented below.

State Party reporting on resource mobilization 10

One of the primary ways to monitor budgets for children is by looking at what State

Parties are saying in their reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child. However,

country reporting on resource mobilization has, in general, been weak in scope and

quality. The statistical information requested by the Committee is demanding for most

developing countries, and reporting falls short of the guidelines. Budgetary information is

often not disaggregated by sectors or groups of children, and is often not explained

through substantive analysis. It is difficult to distinguish between planned and actual

expenditures. Expenditure on welfare or social security programmes is usually made for

the population as a whole, and States do not assess the specific impact of such

expenditures on children. There are few studies on the impact of trade or market

liberalization, deregulation or privatization on children and families. Lack of

standardization across State Party reports makes comparative or trend analyses difficult.

The challenges of using aggregated budget data

To a significant extent, the inadequacy of the information in country reporting can be

traced to the challenges of dealing with budget-related data. While in theory the budget is

a straightforward document – a statement of the sources and uses of public funds – in

practice it is presented in a way that can be challenging to understand. Data on

government spending is not disaggregated in a manner that can be easily analyzed for its

impact on children. For example, the budget may show the amount spent nationally on

social security or primary education as a whole, but it would be difficult to estimate how

much of that was spent on the poorest children.

Also, budgetary data does not always show clearly the contribution of donor funds -

which would measure the extent of international cooperation - in relation to the

government‟s own funds. The amount of donor contributions towards investing on

children is a serious issue for countries where a sizable portion of social sector projects

are funded through development assistance.

Therefore, largely because budgetary data is usually not presented in a disaggregated

manner, State Party reporting on budget-related information is imprecise.

The inter-relatedness of rights and the inter-relatedness of sectors

The difficulty with aggregated data is compounded by the fact that strategies required to

realize rights inevitably have to take a multi-disciplinary approach. For example, in order

to realize a right that falls under one sector, such as child protection (for example, child

labour), it is important to concurrently make investments in other sectors, such as

education, and vice versa. If outcomes in education are observed to be below

expectations, then there could be several causes for the low quality of education, such as

10 Children’s Rights: Turning Principles into Practice (2000). UNICEF and Save the Children. Essay 10, Page 157.

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inadequate attention to child protection (for example, child labour, which prevents

children from attending school), or low investment in nutrition and healthcare (that is,

children who are ill, malnourished or hungry cannot be expected to perform their best in

school). Achieving outcomes in reducing child labour thus requires looking at all the

factors that influence the child‟s development in a protective environment.

Therefore, the budget needs to be subjected to in-depth analysis in order to understand

whether investments are being made across sectors, and how one sector affects the other.

As mentioned above, the analytical perspective needs to be comprehensive. Often, the

availability of detailed information and the capacity for analysis is lacking within the

branches of government.

Challenges of monitoring Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs)

PRSPs are national plans for achieving the stated aim of poverty reduction. PRSPs are

linked to expenditure plans that indicate how the resources required for poverty reduction

activities will be raised, allocated, and spent. These expenditure plans are integrated with

national budgets. However, the annual reporting process of the PRSPs does not lend itself

well to monitoring the realization of children‟s rights.

The PRSPs do not include systematically coherent national mechanisms for monitoring

the obligations of the state. So far, there has been limited consideration and inclusion of

children‟s rights in the design of PRSPs. Thus, the corresponding budget information in

the PRSP does not accurately reflect children‟s priorities.11

Several countries show

changing allocation patterns in their PRSPs, notably with increases for education, health,

clean water and sanitation, which clearly benefit children. However, it is difficult to

gauge whether the increased allocations will be reflected in budgets and executed

efficiently and reach vulnerable groups of the population.

Challenges of monitoring National Plans of Action (NPA)12

While a large number of countries have developed NPAs for children in a consultative

participatory manner, the NPA does not indicate how the plans and activities it specifies

will be funded. NPAs were, in general, conceived with the aim to be used as a reference

for advocacy and fundraising, and most NPAs were designed in isolation of national

development programmes.

Challenges of monitoring national development plans (NDP)13

NDPs do come with a budget that spells out how they will be funded. However, NDPs

are generally led by the ministry of economic development, finance or planning. If

economic or fiscal objectives are prioritized over social policy goals, then it can be

difficult for the social sector ministries to significantly impact the process or content of

11 Based on an internal UNICEF desk review by Jose Guillermo Monroy Peralta, (2004). Ninos, Ninas y Jovenes en las Estrategias de

Reduccion de la Pobreza. 12 Based on the report by Nelson, J. (2004). National action to fulfil the commitments of the UN Special Session on Children: A

preliminary assessment. This is an internal UNICEF report commissioned in collaboration with the Global Movement for Children

Convening Committee and the NGO Group on the Convention. 13 Ibid.

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the NDP, in terms of both the design of the plan and the allocation of resources towards

it.

To sum up…

In sum, the task of reporting on budgetary allocations for the implementation of the

Convention is difficult, and few State Parties undertake the kind of analyses that would

yield satisfactory information. However, the clear need to monitor budgetary allocations -

for social equity and sustainability in general, and in particular for the realization of

children‟s rights - is recognized by government agencies, parliamentarians, civil society

organizations, communities, and international development organizations. Some of their

notable attempts to monitor budgets are highlighted in the case studies in this document.

1.6 The public policy process and its links to the budget

The public policy process is inter-connected and cyclic. The processes of planning,

policy-making, and budget-making and execution intersect, and there is a dynamic

between them, whereby one influences the other. The following diagram illustrates the

links.14

Graph: The policy, planning and budgeting cycle15

14 The World Bank (1998). Public expenditure management handbook. Chapter 3, page 32. 15 Source: World Bank Public expenditure management handbook. (1998).

(1)

REVIEW POLICY

Review the previous planning

and implementation period

(4)

IMPLEMENT PLANS/ACTIVITIES

Collect revenues, release funds, deploy

personnel, and undertake activities

(5)

MONITOR activities and

ACCOUNT for expenditure

(2)

SET POLICY & UNDERTAKE

PLANNING ACTIVITY

Establish resource framework, set out

objectives, policies, strategies &

expenditure priorities

(3)

MOBILIZE & ALLOCATE

RESOURCES

Prepare budget

(6)

EVALUATE and AUDIT

policy activities‟ effectiveness and

feed the results into future plans

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However, there are discrepancies between the theory and reality of how policy decisions

are made and budgets are formulated and executed.

In theory …

Theoretically, if policy and planning processes function smoothly, and if social and

economic rights are reflected in policy decisions, then it should follow that resources will

be adequately allocated for social services. However, there are several weak points along

this linked process, whereby the outcomes for universal and equitable development are

compromised.

In reality, the process is fragmented …

According to a World Bank report, a “failure to link policy, planning and budgeting may

be the single most important factor contributing to poor budgeting outcomes at the macro,

strategic and operational levels in developing countries.”16

Policy making, planning and

budgeting often take place independently of each other. A lack of attention to strategic

planning implies that budget decisions are not reconciled with legislative actions or

policy decisions. Analysis and feedback from previous years does not factor into

planning decisions. Priorities are not aligned according to long and short term objectives.

In such cases, the planning exercise does not involve a strategic and co-ordinated inter-

sectoral allocation of public funds.

To summarize, the weaknesses in public sector operations that can disrupt budget

outcomes include the following:17

• Weak links between legislative, policy-making, planning, and budgeting exercises;

• Inadequate assessment of the resources needed to implement legislation or policy

decisions;

• Inadequate expenditure control, cash management and accounting systems;

• Inadequate funding or planning for recurrent needs (operations and maintenance of

ongoing programmes/activities);

• Weak relationship between budget as formulated and budget as executed, causing

unpredictability in funding needs and flows through the year;

• Unreliability in the flow of budgeted funds to agencies and to lower levels of

government;

• Poor management of external aid or development assistance;

• Inadequate reporting of financial performance;

• Poorly motivated or insufficiently trained staff.

2 Ways and means to influence the budget

While there are challenges to monitoring budgets through the instruments mentioned

above, there are alternative ways to analyze and influence budgets. Some of these are

described below.

16 Ibid. page 31. 17 Based partly on the World Bank‟s Public expenditure management handbook. (1998). Chapter 2, page 5.

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2.1 Costing laws and policies: Objectives and methodologies

Cost benefit analysis and cost effectiveness analysis are just two of several methods used

to make strategic, operational and financing decisions with respect to laws and policies.

Objectives18

There are several objectives to costing a particular policy or piece of legislation. The

immediate aim is to facilitate consideration of alternative policy options, i.e. to evaluate

whether the law or policy is affordable and sustainable, provide information on how its

implementation can be planned and budgeted, and estimate its direct costs on

stakeholders. In the long term, conducting such an exercise helps to put in place the

processes, methodology, and institutions necessary to ensure sound comparative analysis

in the future, at each stage in the legislative reform and policy development process.

Cost-benefit analysis

Cost-benefit analysis involves deciding which legislative option or policy will benefit

society the most, and assessing its associated costs. Governments would ideally

undertake a cost-benefit analysis during the strategic planning stage of the legislative or

policy-making process. A cost-benefit analysis exercise would require the government to

consider who bears the costs and/or enjoys the benefits and what the economic and social

impact is likely to be for all stakeholders.

Cost effectiveness analysis

Cost effectiveness analysis aims to evaluate the following: given a particular legislation,

policy, or project, what is the most cost-effective method of implementing it? Unlike

cost-benefit analysis, which focuses on the net social gain or loss resulting from a

particular legislative or policy option, cost effectiveness analysis compares the resource

costs of different implementation options. It involves identifying the options; determining

the demand for the service or product that would be provided under each option;

determining the inputs, price of inputs and activities involved in each option; calculating

the total budgetary or resource cost of each option; and finally, recommending the

alternative that is most cost effective.

Challenges of conducting cost-benefit and cost effectiveness analyses

Analyses to cost policy have their limitations. For instance, calculating the economic

value of the benefits of social services, which are often supplied freely or are subsidized,

is highly uncertain. Moreover, non-material values, such as the values that accrue to the

quality of life, are also difficult to estimate in economic terms, such as aesthetics or

cultural affiliations. Other challenges include questions of how to decide whose benefits

and costs to count, how to factor in the interests of different social groups, and how to

measure the impact on future generations.

Because of such uncertainties, arbitrary assumptions or unreliable calculations can

potentially be made about the benefits or costs of a policy. This distorts the real costs and

benefits, and could be used politically to manipulate the advocacy or design of the policy.

18 Based on a presentation by Conrad Barberton, Cornerstone Economic Research, South Africa, May 2003.

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However, calculating costs and benefits is still an important step in evaluating the

resource implications of laws and policies. The costing of the Child Justice Bill in South

Africa is, presented as a case study in this document, illustrates this point.

2.2 Entry points along the budget cycle

Influencing budgets does not imply producing separate budgets for children. Rather, the

aim is to identify and reform how laws, policies, and budgets are made and executed in

order to realize the rights of children.

General approaches to influence budgets

The range of activities includes research, policy analysis, negotiations with international

financial institutions, advocacy, capacity-building, training, building organizational

networks, enabling and fostering community participation, and raising economic literacy.

Depending on the nature of activity, the target audience could be the general public,

policy-makers, parliamentarians, government agencies, or civil society organizations.

Such activities are loosely termed as “budget initiatives”, and they can be undertaken by

a variety of actors from both state and society and the international community, including

academia, NGOs, government agencies, legislative bodies, development organizations,

human rights advocates, etc.

One way to map the range of budget initiatives is to consider how their efforts address the

budget cycle along its various stages. This section describes the budget cycle, both in the

ways it is supposed to work in theory, and as it is usually observed in reality. The section

highlights points of entry along various stages of the budget. 19

Drafting stage

Drafting/formulation by the executive: The finance ministry prepares resource projections

and forecasts the macroeconomic outlook. It determines the level of total affordable

government expenditure as well as subtotals according to sector, program or line

ministry. Based on this assessment, the finance ministry sends out a “budget circular” to

line ministries, which includes guidelines for budget planning and invites bids from line

ministries for their spending needs. Line ministries prepare and submit budget requests to

the finance ministry, according to constraints and goals as per the budget circular. The

finance ministry reviews budget requests and negotiates with line ministries to arrive at a

draft budget. Estimates for expenditures in the draft budget are categorized by line

ministry, program and sector.

In reality: The drafting stage is dominated by the executive, particularly the finance ministry.

Macroeconomic concerns can take over social policy objectives. Political agendas coupled with

19 The budget process as presented here is based on that described in What’s behind the budget? By D. Elson and A. Norton, a

publication of the Overseas Development Institute (June 2002). As Elson and Norton indicate, the literature on public expenditure

management is mostly normative, and usually presents the ideal types of arrangements (how the system “should” work). While the

process that they present draws mostly upon Anglophone systems, the general principles apply in all cases. They also note that,

“despite differences in emphasis, audience and objectives [in various source documents], there are substantial elements of consensus which emerge in the discussions of budgets and public expenditure management presented.”

13

imbalances in negotiation power between the ministries can cause inequitable outcomes.

Civil society organizations lack formal channels for intervention and participation.

Moreover, there is often a lack of accurate and adequate information on budgets from

previous years, or statistical or economic data, in order to plan for funding requirements,

forecast demand for services, estimate prices etc, for future years.

Entry points to influence the budget: Budget initiatives at the finance ministry level focus

on advocacy to strengthen political will, influencing national policy objectives to ensure

more equitable outcomes, analyzing budgets and building technical capacity. Channels

for civil society participation in development planning exercises, such as the PRSP, can

be used as a way to consult with otherwise marginalized social groups and bring their

concerns into the policy-making process. At the line ministry level, the negotiation

process between sectors can get overtaken by competing political agendas instead of

being driven by an overall vision. Advocacy efforts can help to represent the rights of

children and emphasize the inter-relatedness of issues that affect them (e.g. between

education, child labour, and poverty).

Budget approval and enactment

Approval and enactment by the legislature: The finance ministry sends the negotiated

budget to the legislature for approval and enactment. The legislature votes on budget

appropriations and approves the budget, which is then enacted and comes into force as an

annual law. The legislature plays a critical role in analyzing, challenging and approving

the budget.

In reality: This is where legislature first debates and can change the budget. However,

budget documents are often inaccessible and complex, and legislatures are poorly

informed and lack the technical capacity to critique and challenge the budget.

Entry points and ways to influence the budget: The important target group at this stage is

the legislature or parliament, which plays a critical role in analyzing and approving the

budget. Budget initiatives aim to increase awareness and capacity of the legislature to

take informed decisions and to monitor the performance of the executive. Clear,

accessible, well-presented analysis of public finance data allows for greater transparency

and highlights critical information.

Implementation of the budget

Implementing the budget involves the release of appropriations (i.e. funds) to spending

ministries. Line ministries or spending agencies enter into contracts and orders. Goods

and services are delivered and verified. Payments are made and transactions are recorded.

In reality: Expenditures that are unplanned and unsustainable cause budget outcomes to

deviate from policy goals. When financial information is not recorded and maintained

efficiently or transparently, then the necessary checks and balances on public expenditure

are weakened. Bureaucratic inefficiency or political obstacles cause flows of funds across

14

the levels of government (from national to sub-national) to be unpredictable and uneven.

All these factors compromise the smooth functioning/execution of the budget.

Entry points to influence the budget: The goal here is to improve budget execution by

monitoring allocations made versus actual expenditure incurred. Budget initiatives can

organize around issues of freedom of information, governance and accountability. They

can advocate for the generation and use of accurate and credible data and streamlined

procedures. For civil society groups, another important aspect of this stage is to collect

information on expenditure, revenue, outputs and outcomes, which would contribute to

the quality of their participation in the legislative stage.

Audit and evaluation

Independent audit, followed by approval by the legislature: Accounts are prepared by the

finance ministry, and audited by independent auditors. The legislature approves the

audited accounts. Accounts are analysed, evaluated and used to inform the budgets in

subsequent years.

In reality: Governance and transparency are the main issues. Also, there is inadequate

feedback of results into future budgets, in part because audits are not produced in a timely

manner. The legislature may lack capacity to adequately scrutinize the accounts.

Entry points to influence the budget: Initiatives at the budget evaluation stage aim to

specify standards for government transparency. Activities include disseminating

information (publicizing budgets); improving access of civil society to published public

accounts; building capacity within civil society to analyze budgets; assessing the clarity

of responsibilities and functions of different levels of government and publishing

citizen‟s guides to economic management or public finance. Few civil society groups

work on the budget in the auditing stage, since the audited accounts are often presented

much after (up to two years) after the close of the financial year.

3 Case studies

This section presents several case studies of budget initiatives. They illustrate how

budgets have been analysed for their relevance to children‟s rights, and also provide

examples of awareness-raising, advocacy, and capacity-building activities.

3.1 South Africa: Costing the implementation of the Child Justice Bill

The draft Child Justice Bill was the first piece of draft legislation in South Africa for

which the costs of implementation were explored in detail prior to it being tabled in

Parliament. The draft Bill, which was released in December 1998, emphasised effective

action in the period immediately following the arrest of a child and before proceeding to

trial. It increased the legal mechanisms to avoid detention and trial by diverting children

15

to programmes that have a restorative justice content. It provided for an increased range

of sentencing options, including many alternatives to imprisonment.

Costing the draft Bill - Estimating the cost implications of the innovations

Two costing exercises20

were conducted to assess the cost of implementation of the Child

Justice Bill, the second being an update and refinement of the first and incorporating

revisions made to the initial draft Bill. The methodology used was the same for both

exercises. Both were commissioned by the Child Justice Project, which is a United

Nations Technical Assistance Project of the Government of South Africa, and is located

in the Department of Justice.

Realizing savings due to the draft Bill and reallocating expenditure

The implementation of the draft Bill would impact on the economic, organizational and

human resources of both national and provincial government departments. The exercise

showed which departments stood to gain or save resources as a result of implementation

of the draft Bill, to what extent, and most importantly, how the savings could be re-

allocated, and how overall expenditure could be managed more effectively.

3.2 South Africa: Child poverty and the budget

The Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) is a South African NGO. One of

its programmes is the Budget Information Service (BIS), which tackles South Africa‟s

budget system through research, analysis, training and capacity-building, with the goal of

alleviating poverty. In a report entitled Child poverty and the budget in South Africa, BIS

aims to contribute “towards monitoring government‟s performance in delivering on its

promises to poor children.” 21

The report examines the government‟s promises to children

- as put forward in South Africa‟s National Programme of Action (NPA) – and uses these

as a benchmark for evaluating the government‟s performance in relation to child poverty

reduction. The focus of the study thus falls on policy developments, budget decisions and

service delivery.

Methodology

The study begins with a definition of child poverty that goes beyond conventional income

measures to include the concepts of powerlessness and vulnerability. It then examines

government policy, spending and service delivery, to assess whether or not poor children

are being „put first‟, i.e. whether children are included in strategies, plans and activities,

but it deliberately does not examine the impact of the measures on reducing child poverty

(i.e. it focuses on policy statements and plans, not on child poverty indicators). The study

analyzes South Africa‟s Budget 2000 and investigates the medium term expenditure

20 The first is Costing the Implementation of the Child Justice Bill: A Scenario Analysis (1999), and the second is Re-Costing the Child Justice Bill. Updating the original costing taking into consideration changes made to the bill (2001), by Conrad Barberton with John

Stuart. 21 Report by Shaamela Cassiem, Hellen Perry, Mastoera Sadan and Judith Streak. Budget Information Service, Institute for

Democracy in South Africa (IDASA). November 2000. Accessed in April 2004 from:

http://www.hri.ca/children/welfare/SAfrica_povertybudget.pdf.

This document is an abridged version of the book: Are poor children being put first? Child poverty and the budget 2000, by the same authors. Cape Town: Idasa.

16

framework22

(MTEF) for 2000-2003 with a focus on poor children. One of its most useful

aspects is that it provides clear descriptions of the structure of government finance and

implications of fiscal policy, which are essential to base an analysis of the budget.

3.3 Vietnam: Child-focused budget study on the right to education

Save the Children Sweden conducted a child-focused budget study in Vietnam that

examined district-level budgets for primary education for children with disabilities

(CWD).23

The study examined three primary schools, with the following objectives:

make children including CWD, more visible in policies and decision-making processes,

especially those related to budget and resource allocations in Vietnam; collect

information on the process and structure of education budgets at district level, with a

focus on expenditure on education for CWD; identify and clarify the link between budget

and policies related to children‟s rights to education.

The main approach of the study is to regard the budgetary process as an incremental

process. This means that the analysis of the budget and other financial resources will not

focus on overall efficiency of the budget, but on the incremental part of the budget (that

is, the part that changes from year to year). The justification for taking this approach is

that governments as well as researchers face obstacles in limited access to information

and data and analytical capacity. By starting from the central government level and then

delving into more specific district and school levels of budgets, the analysis can provide

an understanding of overall limitations of the budgetary process at lower levels of

government. The study emphasizes qualitative rather than quantitative analysis, due to

data limitations as well as the breadth of the research question.

3.4 Brazil: Calculating the “Children’s Budget”

The “Children‟s Budget” is a national-level effort in Brazil that aims to promote

transparency in the use of public resources through monitoring public budgets and

providing relevant information to civil society groups and others. 24

In 1995, a number of

local and international organizations helped to formulate the Pact for Children document,

which highlighted the importance of monitoring public policy financing that affects

children. In 1996, two Brazilian think-tanks detailed a methodology for identifying state

actions and resources aimed at guaranteeing the survival, development and protection of

children, given the absolute priority for such activities demanded by the new Brazilian

Constitution.

22 The World Bank describes the MTEF as a process of reconciling “availability” of resources, both domestic and aid, which must be projected beyond a single year, with “needs”, which must be prioritized and made consistent with the resource framework. This

reconciliation process involves engaging finance, planning, and line ministries as well as the Cabinet, and making intersectoral trade-

offs. 23 Nguyen Thi Van Anh, Ngo Huy Duc, Le Ngoc Hung, Luu Van Quang. (2000). Child-focused budget study: Assessing the rights to

education of children with disabilities in Vietnam. Save the Children. Hanoi. 24 Source: A report based on a longer study of UNICEF Brazil‟s participatory budget activities prepared for UNICEF by four Brazilian consultants (2003).

17

Methodology

In its analysis, the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (INESC), a Brazilian NGO,

focused on the government‟s direct expenditures for children during 1995 to 1998.

INESC began tracking the spending of various ministries on projects and activities that

have an impact on children‟s rights. By totalling the spending on such projects, INESC

arrived at Brazil‟s “Children‟s Budget.” The reports on spending for children were

disseminated to some 200-300 decision-makers, civil society groups, and individuals. In

1999 INESC began producing a separate, more focused, improved bulletin, Budget and

Policy for Children and Adolescents, which was disseminated to 2,000 recipients,

including media outlets and members of Congress.

Impact

The importance of the Bolsa-Escola Programme, which provides a stipend to families

who withdraw their children from the labour force and send them to school, and a

programme aimed at ending child sexual exploitation was successfully placed on the

national agenda. Some existing programmes, such as the Ministry of Justice‟s

Department of Children and Adolescents received increased funding. In real terms,

spending on children grew by 42 percent over 1998-2001.

3.5 Brazil: Community participation25

The Participatory Budget in Brazil is a government-led methodology for increasing

popular participation in financial decision-making. It aims to strengthen a sense of

citizenship among ordinary people, to encourage them to act politically and sharpen their

capacity to make demands on those in power. Although it does not have an explicit focus

on children, its results in Porto Alegre, Itapuí and Roraima demonstrate that the demands

made by communities and parents on local officials are generally for improvements that

affect children. Among the most common demands were improved infrastructure, water

supply, access to schools, and recreational opportunities. In Itapuí, children and

adolescents have been included in the participatory process.

Methodology

Neighbourhood representatives were elected to work with the city on carrying out the

decision-making process regarding municipal funds. Representatives received training on

human rights, management, social participation, and organisation. After training, the

representatives began participating in every aspect of the city‟s work, from planning to

execution.

Impact

In Boa Vista, one of the first actions taken was to put 550 children (aged 7-14 years) who

were not attending school back into the educational system. In addition, neighbourhood

residents asked for and got 1,300 toilets, improved lighting to reduce violence, and

construction of schools and sports fields. A project was developed to address the

25 From a UNICEF report based on a longer study of participatory budget activities prepared for UNICEF by four Brazilian consultants (2003).

18

adolescents who were not in school and were involved in drinking and gang activity. The

project found job-training opportunities for them and provided a small monthly

allowance as well as health and dental benefits to participants who returned to school; 90

percent of the youth targeted did so. Another pilot programme was to establish day-care

centres for working mothers living in the poorest neighbourhoods. Each centre cares for

25 toddlers and is staffed by local women who are trained by educators, psychologists

and nutritionists to care for the children.

3.6 Ecuador: Budget analysis and national-level advocacy

Beginning in 1999, as Ecuador was facing an economic crisis, UNICEF Ecuador decided

that to protect children‟s rights, it was necessary that the government and society

understand the roots of the crisis in order to develop and implement meaningful solutions.

The goal was to minimize the negative impact of recent economic shocks on the poor,

especially children, by shaping public policies based on a consensus regarding a society‟s

obligation to its members.

UNICEF brought together an experienced and respected team of international and local

consultants to analyze the economic situation and its implications for children, with a

focus on the national budget. The study concluded that social sector allocations do not

help the poor, because expenditures are uneven and inefficient. The results were

presented to key figures in Ecuador, including the president, cabinet members, and

political party leaders.

The idea of linking social and economic decision-making was accepted, and social

spending increased by 15.5 percent over the amount originally allocated during 2000,

helped in part by a spike in oil income. UNICEF was given access to the government‟s

database, which it used to analyse the impact of budgetary decisions on children‟s well-

being and to produce a periodical Bulletin aimed at legislators, civil society, and the

media.

3.7 India: Raising public awareness at the sub-national level

Developing Initiatives for Social and Human Action (DISHA) is not a child-centred

organization but its work is indicative of the emerging local initiatives on budget-related

issues.26

DISHA, a membership-based organisation of 20,000 tribal and forest workers in

the state of Gujarat, has addressed issues of equality, discrimination and governance

through alternative budget analysis since the early 1990s.27

Methodology

26 DISHA works with labour unions, village-level groups, co-operatives, etc. in predominantly tribal and agricultural areas of Gujarat.

It works on issues of enforcement of minimum wages for forest labourers, drought-relief labourers, migrant construction labourers,

casual mine-workers, and casual labourers, as well as to regularize the ownership of forest-land to the forest land cultivators. Accessed

on April 6, 2004: http://www.worldbank.org/participation/mistrydoc.htm 27 Mihir Bhatt. (2000). Alternative budget analysis: DISHA’s experience. Foundation for Public Interest, India. Accessed April 6, 2004: http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/civsoc/final/india/ind14.doc

19

To understand the slow pace of economic, social and infrastructure in tribal areas28

of

Gujarat vis-à-vis the many years of government spending in these areas, DISHA adopted

the accounting system prescribed by the government‟s Auditor General of Accounts. It

studied the codification of sectors, programmes, and schemes in the state-level budget. It

analyzed the amount spent in the tribal areas relative to other areas in the social sectors,

agriculture, women‟s welfare, children, etc., and concluded that these areas were being

neglected. DISHA prepared dissemination material in the local language and distributed

the information to members of the legislature, the press, opposition parties, and public

cause advocates, thus forcing the government to defend itself against the facts and

analysis of socio-economic conditions and expenditures in the tribal areas.

Impact

The nature of debate within the legislature and state government changed. The state

government responded by increasing allocations and expenditures on the identified items

and sectors in subsequent budgets. DISHA next looked at the income earned and taxes

borne by the poor. This not only strengthened its case for demands on allocation and

adequate spending, but also widened its vision of development from one segment (tribal)

of society to include all the poor of the state of Gujarat. Instead of a concern on a narrow

range of issues, DISHA began to address the whole budget system. It also organized

training programmes for NGOs of different states to understand the state-level and

district budgets.

3.8 Tanzania: Gender budget network

The Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) is a non-governmental

organization working to obtain social transformation with a gender focus in all levels of

society. TGNP pioneered the Gender Budget Initiative (GBI) in mid-1997 in

collaboration with the Feminist Activism Coalition (FemAct). GBI aims to advocate for a

more people-oriented development strategy and participatory and equitable allocation of

resources. The strategy is to influence and transform planning and budgetary processes so

that they are more participatory, and take into account the practical and strategic needs of

marginalized groups, women, youth and the poor.

Impact

TGNP has gained access into government structures and strategic decision-making

bodies. Through its participation in the PER and TAS processes, TGNP together with the

FemAct Coalition has been able to push a collective agenda and advocate for

transformation in macro-economic processes, transparency, and accountability by

government actors.

28 The tribals and other communities live in hilly regions in Gujarat and constitute 15 percent of the state‟s population. At the national level, they number nearly 80 million over all the states of India.

20

4 Conclusions

4.1 Common features of budget initiatives

As the introduction mentions, the objective of this document is to highlight the attempts

of government and non-government actors to influence budgets in order to make them

socially equitable and gender- and child-sensitive.

The case studies above illustrate a collection of such attempts, referred to as “budget

initiatives,” which span a range of activities: analysis of budgets, raising public

awareness, building capacity for budget analysis, facilitating participation, building

networks, and advocacy, among others. While these initiatives are targeted at various

audiences and levels of government and civil society, and are conducted by different

actors, they share certain common features. The most obvious is that they are all

committed to ensuring that budgets are more socially equitable and the budget process is

transparent and has greater accountability throughout. Among their other common

features, they share two significant characteristics with respect to their goals, processes,

and outcomes.

The first is that they seek to build upon and strengthen the link between law, policy, and

budgets. That is, their goals implicitly recognize the link between law, policy and

budgets, and their activities seek to achieve the realization of rights through building

upon these links.

The second common characteristic is a consequence of the first: budget initiatives involve

activities and processes that result in building capacity amongst both government and

non-government actors and enabling civil society participation in public policy

processes. This stems from the fact that, as in most of the cases described above, budget

analysis is only the first step. The work does not end at analysis, but goes further to

disseminate the analysis, raise public awareness, advocate on budget-related issues and

participate in policy and legislative processes.

It is important to note that since policy processes are cyclic and dynamic, the above

factors influence each other. That is, enhanced analytical capacity and effective

participation in policy-making and budget processes has the effect of strengthening the

links between law, policy, and budgets.

This interplay occurs in several ways, including the following:

• Evidence and analysis helps to enhance the role of civil society organizations in their

pro-poor and rights-based advocacy work, so that they can participate more

effectively in policy debates. It also helps to empower communities and enable their

participation.

• Research partnerships between development and human rights organizations and

policy analysts help to integrate the different perspectives and skills and advance

policy analysis geared towards children‟s rights.

21

• Building capacity on budget analysis amongst policy makers, government officials

and parliamentarians equips them to access and use the information they need to

consider the rights of children, and to influence budget decisions with this

information.

4.2 Measuring impact

As with any effort that requires a multi-pronged approach, with simultaneous action on

various fronts (such as national and sub-national government, legislature, civil society,

academia, etc.), evaluating the impact of budget initiatives requires taking into account

the whole context in which the budget exercise is conducted. Budget initiatives involve a

range of activities (such as analysis, capacity-building, advocacy, etc.), each of which can

have a different degree of impact for a different audience. Given the many dimensions of

such efforts, some of the main challenges in measuring their impact are as follows:

Challenges in measuring impact by attributing cause and effect

Moreover, budgets are influenced by a variety of imperatives, actors, and decisions. The

cause and effect of results cannot be easily attributed to specific efforts. In other words, it

is difficult to link impact directly and uniquely to a particular strategy or initiative.

For example, in Ecuador, after the results of budget analysis were presented to key

government figures, social spending increased by 15.5 percent over the amount originally

allocated during 2000. However, this increase was helped by a spike in oil income, which

made available additional resources to the government. The advocacy efforts were

significant, but they were not the only reason for the observed increase in social

spending.

The success of each budget initiative is context-specific

The success of budget initiatives depends on strategic as well as technical skills. Even

when those undertaking the efforts have strong capacity and political power, their

influence on the budget depends on the political, social, and economic climate in which

they operate. What is considered as “success” varies according to country-specific

circumstances and shifting political scenarios.

For example, gender-sensitive budget analysis was pioneered in Australia in 1984, when

gender advocates from within the government launched the first and longest-running

gender budget initiative in the Australian federal government.29

It studied the budget‟s

impact on women and girls, and one of its goals was to change the budget and policies to

further gender equality. During the main activity of the initiatives (1985–1996)

expenditures on areas of significance to women grew substantially. However, progress

was constrained by the political nature of the budget process in the context of shifts to a

more conservative government. Whilst the government has moved away from formal

gender budget exercises, the goals are still a priority for women‟s policy units,

community groups, and researchers. The impact, therefore, is substantive but mixed.

29 Sharp, R. and Broomhill, R. (2002). Budgeting for Equality: The Australian Experience. Feminist Economics, 8(1), 2002, 25–47.

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Challenges in measuring impact in the short term

Though budgeting and policy-making are annual cyclic processes, the outcomes from

execution of many economic and social policies are often only observed in the medium to

long term, which makes it difficult to measure impact in the short term. The long term

nature of outcomes affects not only the challenge of measuring impact, but also the

analytical approach of a budget exercise.

For example, the objective of the study on child poverty and the budget in South Africa is

to assess whether or not poor children are being “put first” in government policy,

spending and service delivery. It does not examine the direct impact of the poverty

reduction measures in reducing child poverty. It primarily assesses policy statements,

budget documents, and social services to see if children‟s rights are accounted for; it does

not assess child poverty indicators. It cites a number of reasons for taking this approach,

one being that there is generally a time lag between increases in public spending on

children and changes in child poverty outcomes.

So how does one evaluate impact?

The conclusion is that in order to assess the impact of budget initiatives, one needs to

understand that their effectiveness is observed over time, through cumulative efforts, and

only when they are accompanied by complementary activities. For example, a single

analytical report on child poverty and budgets is not likely to have a significant change in

social policy. But several such reports, each one building on and improving the other with

deeper evidence and analysis, with concerted advocacy efforts at different levels of

government, would be more likely to influence policy decisions. As another example, one

of the shortcomings of the Australian gender budget initiative was its failure to engage

civil society groups, including by making results accessible, which resulted in a lack of

external pressure to hold the government accountable.30

Commonly observed results from successful initiatives

Another conclusion is that while the impact of budget initiatives depends on the final

outcomes achieved, a consequence of conducting the exercises over time is that they

build capacity and skills, establish dialogue and debates on policy issues, and mobilize

human and organizational resources. These consequences may not be the explicitly stated

objectives of all the initiatives, but they form an important aspect of influencing policy,

as follows:

• Establishing a policy dialogue on children’s rights and gender: By virtue of

mobilizing efforts around budget-related issues, analysts, activists and advocates

accomplish the task of raising the profile of gender, social equity and children‟s rights

in policy debates. This brings a new dimension and balance to the content and

discourse of policy debates, and lays the foundation for further dialogue; it establishes

an analytical/theoretical base as well as the basis for institutional reform. In addition,

such a dialogue affects the dynamics and structure of interaction between the state

30

Ibid.

23

and civil society on issues of economic and social policy and public resources, which

enhances participation and enables sustainability of reforms.

• Mobilizing human and organizational resources: Importantly, the range of budget

initiatives and their partnerships, involving government at national and sub-national

level and parliamentarians as well as economists, sociologists, gender advocates, and

human rights activists, all show that a diverse array of actors, skills, capacities and

organizational resources are mobilized. These efforts illustrate the will and capability

that can be marshalled within both state and society to influence legislation, state

institutions, and public finances towards social equity objectives.

4.3 Suggestions for further action

Improving State Party reports through civil society cooperation

In the State Party reporting guidelines31

, under Articles 19 and 20, State Parties are

required to indicate “any initiatives taken in cooperation with the civil society … and any

mechanisms developed to evaluate progress achieved,” as well as “arrangements for

budgetary analysis enabling the amount and proportion spent on children to be clearly

identified.” These imperatives should be followed up more concretely. States Parties

should report on budget analyses conducted in partnership with civil society. Technical

skills in budget analysis should be mobilized to produce relevant analyses.

Under Article 45(a) of the Convention, the Committee on the Rights of the Child may

invite specialized agencies, UNICEF and “other competent bodies,” including NGOs, to

provide expert advice on the implementation of the Convention. The Convention thus

expressly gives NGOs a monitoring role. NGOs and experts who are involved in budget

analysis and advocacy should be encouraged to participate in State Party reporting.

Enhancing quality and availability of data

An important aspect of improving State Party reporting is for States to obtain and use

better quality data. Improvements in data availability, disaggregation, and accuracy will

improve the monitoring efforts for all actors.

Using benchmarks linked to international development goals

Another part of the solution is to revise the benchmarks used to measure progress. For

example, as the Committee on the Rights of the Child32

has commented, the „20/20

Initiative‟ is one such benchmark. However, since it was initiated in 1995, progress on

20/20 has tapered off. Other internationally agreed development targets, such as the

Millennium Development Goals and the World Fit for Children agenda, are currently

more relevant and useful, and can help to guide monitoring efforts.

Tracking multiple indicators, taking a multi-disciplinary approach

31 General guidelines for periodic reports. November 20, 1996. CRC/C/58. 32 Children’s Rights: Turning Principles into Practice (2000). UNICEF and Save the Children. Essay 10.

24

The analytical approach should be multi-disciplinary and cross-thematic. It should focus

on addressing the links between laws, policies, and budgets, within the economic, social,

cultural, and political context of the country, and its regulatory and legal framework. An

example of a cross-thematic issue is the privatization of healthcare services in developing

countries and its impact on AIDS orphans.

Studying the impact of economic policies on children’s rights

Macroeconomic policies have an important effect on children‟s well-being, and can set

the constraints under which the Convention has to be implemented. This is an issue that

has been raised by the Committee. However, the relevant analysis is generally limited,

and needs to be increased and improved. For example, the negative influence of

economic recessions on children‟s nutrition levels and school enrolment is well

documented. But when fiscal and monetary policies are geared towards excessive budget

surpluses or high interest rates, which constrain spending on social sectors, their cost in

terms of children‟s rights being jeopardized is often neither mentioned nor measured.

Monitoring PRSPs requires dialogue between government ministries…

An analysis of how the government proposes to finance sectors such as social security,

child protection, healthcare, etc. under the PRSP would illustrate the commitment of the

government to its plans for poverty reduction. Since the PRSP process is largely led by

the ministry of finance, economic development, or planning, it becomes critical for line

ministries to gain a seat at the negotiating table and participate effectively, that is, with

knowledge of how economic and fiscal priorities play out and how children‟s rights can

be made central in the goals.

…which distributes accountability for children’s rights across ministries …

Greater dialogue between the finance ministry and line ministries on the above issues is

critical for several reasons. It would bring greater detail and clarity in State Party

reporting on budgetary allocations. It would distribute the responsibility for answering to

questions on social sector spending to both line ministries and the finance ministry. It

would engage the finance ministry on issues of equity and rights more substantively, and

distribute accountability for children‟s rights more equally across government entities.

… and strengthens NPAs and NDPs.

In the context of assessing NPAs and NDPs for children, purposeful dialogue between

ministries would raise the profile of children‟s rights and bring clarity to rights-based

approaches in the government planning process.